Parliamentary Committee Notes: Overview Note

General Information

Date:               Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Time:               3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location:         West Block, Room 035-B

Timeline of the Study                        

Since November 1, 2022, PROC has held six meetings on Foreign Election Interference, and has heard 26 witnesses, including  Ministers Leblanc and Joly and government witnesses from Elections Canada, CSIS, CSE, GAC, and the RCMP. Other witnesses include the organisations Disinfo Watch and MediaSmarts and David Mulroney, former Ambassador of Canada to the People’s Republic of China and Jim Judd, former director of CSIS, appearing as individuals.  

Your appearance to this Committee has been precipitated by the following motion adopted by PROC on February 21, 2022:

• That, given the recent Globe and Mail reports written by Steven Chase and Robert Fife which brought forward shocking revelations regarding Beijing’s strategy to interfere and influence Canada’s democratic institutions, the Committee, for the purpose of addressing this significant threat to our democracy,
1. extend its study of Foreign Election Interference by as many meetings as required to investigate these reports and, to that end, schedule at least one meeting on February 23, 2023, and at least two meetings during the week of February 27, 2023;
   
2. invite senior officials from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Communications Security Establishment, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Elections Canada (including the Commissioner of Canada Elections), the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force, the Critical Elections Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP) Panel, and the Privy Council Office to testify on these reports;
   
3. invite The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to return to testify on these reports;
   
4. invite The Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety;
   
5. invite The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, to return to testify on these reports;
   
6. invite Jody Thomas, National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister;
   
7. invite Vincent Rigby, former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister;
   
8. invite David Morrison, former Foreign and Defence Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister; and
   
9. hear each of the foregoing witnesses in public and any other witnesses the committee members wish to hear from.

First Panel (March 1, 3:00pm to 4:00pm)

You will appear on the first panel with the following officials:

• Jody Thomas, National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister (NSIA)
• Cindy Termorshuizen, Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Opening Remarks

Opening remarks will be delivered by NSIA Thomas. These should last between five and seven minutes and will be followed by questions from committee members.

Rounds of Questions

• First round of questions:
• Conservative Party six (6) minutes
• Liberal Party six (6) minutes
• Bloc Québécois six (6) minutes
• New Democratic Party six (6) minutes

• Second and subsequent round of questions:
• Conservative Party, five (5) minutes
• Liberal Party, five (5) minutes
• Bloc Québécois, two and a half (2.5) minutes
• New Democratic Party, two and a half (2.5) minutes
• Conservative Party, five (5) minutes
• Liberal Party, five (5) minutes

Second Panel (March 1, 4:00pm to 5:00pm)

Representatives of SITE Task Force (CSIS, CSE, RCMP, GAC).

• CSIS: Adam Fisher, Director General, Intelligence Assessments, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
• RCMP: Adriana Poloz Executive Director, Intelligence and International Policing
• RCMP: Greg O’Hayon, A/DG Strategic Intelligence, Federal Policing Intelligence and International Policing
• CSE : Alia Tayyeb, Deputy Chief, Signals Intelligence Branch

Third Panel (March 2, 10:00am to 11:00am)

• Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer of Canada (CEO)
• Caroline J. Simard, Commissioner of Elections Canada

Fourth Panel (March 2, 11:00am to 12:00pm)

Heads of Security Agencies:

• RCMP: Michael Duheme, Deputy Commissioner
• CSIS: David Vigneault, Director and Michelle Tessier, Deputy Director, Operations
• CSE: Caroline Xavier, Chief

Fifth Panel (March 2, 2:00pm to 3:00pm)

Critical Election Incident Public Protocol:

• David Morrison, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Rob Stewart, Deputy Minister of International Trade

Date modified:

2023-07-18